The Guardian, Washington Post win Pulitzer Prize for NSA coverage

The Washington Post and The Guardian were awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for public service on Monday for their coverage of the National Security Agency and its surveillance program.

The Prize committee announced that The Post and The Guardian were chosen because of the "revelation of widespread secret surveillance by the National Security Agency, marked by authoritative and insightful reports that helped the public understand how the disclosures fit into the larger framework of national security," reports The New York Times.

The committee didn't specifically mention what journalists were heavily involved, but they were The Post's Barton Gellman and The Guardian's Ewen MacAskill and Glenn Greenwald, along with Laura Poitras.

According to The Washington Post, about 28 in all worked on the NSA documents and reports at the newspaper, on top of those at The Guardian.

The 19-member committee also awarded Eli Saslow, who works at The Post, a Pulitzer because of his effort to pull back the curtain on people who are on food stamps.

The Boston Globe was awarded for Boston Marathon Bombings coverage and two Prizes for photography went to the New York Times.

This isn't the first time the Pulitzer committee has awarded coverage of documents, as the Times won back in 1972 for reporting on the Pentagon Papers.